What are the necessary components of a well-stocked home bar?

I blame cheap beer commercials, wine coolers, and “Sex in the City.” Somewhere along the way, Americans got away from the home bar and mixing complex and grown-up cocktails and started drinking fruity, watered-down, syrupy sweet concoctions and light beer. I believe it was a slow process that began with the rise of “lite” beer, the invention and propagation of wine coolers, and the Cosmo swilling that took place on “Sex and the City.”

Whatever the cause of the downfall of classic cocktail making, that’s all in the past. There is a new era of mixology and craft cocktails afoot as more people are eschewing the ubiquitous Cosmos, Margaritas, and anything made with Red Bull.

While you could go out to any number of trendy mixology-minded bars and spend upwards of $15 for a carefully crafted cocktail, you can also learn to make them at home.  The key is to pick a few basic cocktails and keep the ingredients needed for those on hand. Don’t feel like you need to have components for every possible cocktail. Instead, you can add liquors and mixers as you want to try something new. You can work your way up to a well-stocked home bar.

The Mixologist’s Home Bar Mixer Must Haves

1. Vermouth – Sweet and Dry

Vermouth is a fortified wine, but not one that you would want to drink alone. It works as a partner with other flavors. Dry vermouth is essential in a gin martini, and sweet vermouth is used in a Manhattan.

2. Cointreau

Cointreau is an orange liqueur. There are other types of orange liqueurs, but Cointreau is the best if you are serious about crafted cocktails. It’s used in a plethora of cocktails, but some of the classics include the Sidecar, Singapore Sling, and the Kamikaze. It’s also the key ingredient in Cosmo and Margaritas.

3. Maraschino Liqueur

Luxardo’s Maraschino Cherry Liqueur is a delightful mixer. One ingenious use for Luxardo is to make homemade drunken Maraschino cherries using fresh cherries. That’s a real crowd-pleaser, let me tell you. It can also be to concoct the Hemingway Daiquiri and the Aviation cocktail.

4. Bitters

Bitters are not used to make cocktails bitter but are a way to impart a lot of flavor in a little punch. There are many kinds of bitters out there, but there are two must-haves for your home bar. The first is Angostura Bitters, which are necessary for making the Manhattan, Old-Fashioned, Rob Roy, and the Pisco Sour. The second is Peychaud’s Bitters, which is a key component to the Sazerac and the Mint Julep. You will find Angostura bitters to be more herbaceous in flavor while Peychaud’s bitters are more floral.

5. Campari

Campari is an apéritif, a liqueur served before a meal, which also serves as a cocktail mixer. Made from fruits and herbs infused in alcohol, it imparts a sweet, spicy and somewhat bitter flavor. It is an essential ingredient in the Negroni and the Americano cocktails.

6. St. Germain

St Germain is a French liqueur that takes its flavor from elderflowers. While relatively new on the scene, it is a wonderful specialty liqueur. It has a delicate flavor that lends itself to lighter cocktails. Mix it with Champagne (or other sparkling wine) for a lovely bubbly cocktail.

7. Galliano

Galliano has flavors of anise, vanilla, juniper, citrus, and herbs. It has a complicated flavor profile, and that makes it the perfect mixer. It is a necessary ingredient in the Harvey Wallbanger and can even be served as a digestif, or a liqueur that is served after a meal.

What are your favorite home bar ingredients?

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Image: Old Fashioned Cocktail via Shutterstock

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Hipster cliché or not, craft sodas are showing up in bars and on menus nationwide, and that’s a good thing. Move over, high fructose corn syrup and artificial colorings, there’s a new carbonated beverage in town.

Craft sodas are reaching their tipping point. Joining the ranks of trendsetters like DRY Soda Co., WildCraft Soda, and SIP are a rising number of restaurants, bars, and nano-producers who are using some surprising raw ingredients to produce their seasonal products. DRY really set the modern standard for craft sodas; the Seattle-based company specializes in scarcely sweetened beverages that make for elegant refreshers or mixers.

Flavors like Rhubarb, Lavender, Ginger, Blood Orange, Juniper Berry, and Cucumber also pair well with appetizers, salads, or a cheese course. Miniscule WildCraft Soda, founded by DC native Nathan Zeender, takes a different approach, using foraged ingredients like elderberry, rose hip, sarsparilla, and burdock and licorice root. The resulting draft-only sodas have a distinct Colonial American vibe.

In Brooklyn, perhaps the epicenter of craft foods, Caroline Mak and Antonio Ramos recently moved their tiny, three-year-old company into slightly larger digs. Brooklyn Soda Works was born of the couple’s love of mixing up a great cocktail. They began selling their craft beer-influenced (because they’re carbonated in-keg) sodas at Brooklyn Flea. Instead of carbonated syrup or concentrate, the sodas are made with fresh-squeezed juices, using ingredients sourced farmer-direct from the Brooklyn Grand Army Plaza and Union Square farmers’ markets.

Esoteric seasonal flavors include Yellow Plum & Basil; Concord Grape & Fennel Seed; Strawberry, Hops, & Pink Peppercorn, and Grapefruit, Jalapeno, and Honey. Bring on the gin or vodka, please. One of the most unusual- and delicious- craft sodas on the market comes from Northern California’s Eatwell Farms. Farmer/co-owner Lorraine Walker started making whey-fermented sodas four years ago, using Lactobacilus-rich, organic milk by-product from Petaluma’s St. Benoît Yogurt, and fruit and herbs from her farm. The result- Drinkwell Softers- have a gentle fizz, and subtle creamy note on the palate.

Walker mixes a base of fermented whey, sugar, and salt with water and fresh fruit juice. Then, she adds aromatics. The result are seasonal flavors like Lemon Verbena, Lavender, Rosemary, and Rose Geranium. Walker sells the sodas at markets (most notably, San Francisco’s famed Ferry Plaza Farmers Market). Explains Walker, “It’s always been my goal to encourage people to think about beverages the same way many of us think about our food; made with locally-grown, organic ingredients. What we drink should figure into the concept of the local food movement just like produce, meat, eggs, and dairy.”

Related on EcoSalon:

Soft Drink Revival: A Return to Old-Fashioned Soda Shops

There’s Quinoa in Your Cocktail: Foodie Underground

Images via Alberto Gonzalez, DRY Soda Co.,  lubre

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